Notorious Monsters and FF12

[Jerseyprophet]

I read on gamefaq's that there are monster hunt quests, and seems that there are similiar "spawn" conditions as FF11.

I havent gone and picked up my copy yet, so please...someone give me some instant gratification and tell me all about it please! Are there kraken club ohmygawd type items that drop?

Also, please include any other info about the similiarities between 12 and our cherished 11. I know the battle system is similiar, so try to give more detail than that.

Ie; are there items that boost certain traits (treasure hunter, etc.) and are there magic bursts? Stuff like that.

[Correction]

It's more closely related to IX and Tactics than XI. Characters don't change much in appearance except for equipped weapon/shield and there are 'rare' and 'common' drops/steals for almost every mob in the game, including bosses. So if you truly wish to min/max your characters you'll wind up equipping +steal gear (it's an accesory) to maximize your chances AND reset a lot to try again since in the case of boss fights they are not repeatable.

The monster hunts are straightforward. You get a job off a bulletin board or from montblanc himself, go talk to the client to start the job, pop the mob (they don't always just sit there in wait, some have actual spawn conditions) and kill it/return for your reward, often money and some equpment. Getting these out of the way early is a good source of income and items, but the later ones are mercilessly difficult, to be attempted on a save file where you're just before the final boss and your characters are pimped.

Magic bursts come from doing 'mist knacks' ('quickening' in the NA release I gather) in the proper combination. The more difficult ones release more powerful bursts, and it's the bursts that will do the bulk of the damage from the combination. The individual attacks really don't do much more than equivalent MP spent on spells, or time on melee attacks. The combos are where it's all at.

[Jerseyprophet]

Awesome! Thank you, what I was looking for.

What's the best items you've obtained? Stats my boy, stats.

[Helpoemer]

Awesome! Thank you, what I was looking for.

What's the best items you've obtained? Stats my boy, stats.

best sword in the game is Tournesol, 140ATK 2h sword +30 evasion.

stronger than that is the Strongest Halberd (NA name is Zodiac Spear i think) with like 150ATK but it's hard as hell to get unless you don't touch a single treasure up until a certain point.

also it might be better to post in the sticky ;x

[GraveRobberX]

Dude Jersey this just like XI

I killed an assload of wolves in the Starting area (150+)

[lvl 7 atm on Vaan]

Somehow I popped a NM (Limble Wolf) , no, not a bulletin board NM(like Thexteria), a real Huge Haste casting Wolf NM LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

I just ran up to it and was like wtf? why is it so huge, and why isn't Libra working

Casted haste and 3 hits I was down ; ;

Gonna try @lvl 10 solo

[Correction]

Assasin's arrows are pretty hot. Get one off this game's Fafnir. 25% chance on hit of killing the target. :D

[cassiraa]

Any weapons that occasionally hit 2-3 times? <_<

[Tekki]

Ya theres regular NMs. About 30 of them I think. Ive come across a bat and Exile NM. The Exile started to kill my ppl off with this crazy insta cast flood like move. Paniced and wiped him out with a quickning combo. No drop. The bat dropped his armor but I died later and forgot to save so I lost it

[Helpoemer]

Any weapons that occasionally hit 2-3 times? <_<

all non-ranged weapons have a chance to attack 2-15 times depending on the type of weapon

swords = normal (max is around 8)
2h swords = normal (max is around 8)
spears = normal (max is around 6)
staffs/rods = rare
Great Katana = pretty common to combo (max around 10)
Katana = very common to combo (max around 15)
dagger = pretty common but not as common as GK (max around 12)
axes = normal


EDIT: reply to tekki's post there's 80 NMs total, not counting bosses/mob hunts

[Eaglestrike]

Any weapons that occasionally hit 2-3 times? <_<

all non-ranged weapons have a chance to attack 2-15 times depending on the type of weapon

swords = normal (max is around 8)
2h swords = normal (max is around 8)
spears = normal (max is around 6)
staffs/rods = rare
Great Katana = pretty common to combo (max around 10)
Katana = very common to combo (max around 15)
dagger = pretty common but not as common as GK (max around 12)
axes = normal


EDIT: reply to tekki's post there's 80 NMs total, not counting bosses/mob hunts

In your opinion is it generally best to stick with each characters 'proficient' weapon? Or is a certain weapon type that much stronger than another that you'd want to use something else? I just picked up Ashe so should I keep her with Gkat?

[Lbelle]

is anyone dying ALOT? I mean like, ALOT? My characters seem to be of level and have decent gear...but I get killed so easily.

[Correction]

is anyone dying ALOT? I mean like, ALOT? My characters seem to be of level and have decent gear...but I get killed so easily.

Where are you? :D

The only monsters that would repeatedly kill me are the ones I failed to activate Libra and 'check' before engaging, like that fucking t-rex right outside of town (who doesn't aggro until you attack it btw.)

[Lbelle]

is anyone dying ALOT? I mean like, ALOT? My characters seem to be of level and have decent gear...but I get killed so easily.

Where are you? :D

The only monsters that would repeatedly kill me are the ones I failed to activate Libra and 'check' before engaging, like that fucking t-rex right outside of town (who doesn't aggro until you attack it btw.)

like the walls owned the shit out of me...

[Dion]

i got killed by some spiky unicorn thing

[Correction]

is anyone dying ALOT? I mean like, ALOT? My characters seem to be of level and have decent gear...but I get killed so easily.

Where are you? :D

The only monsters that would repeatedly kill me are the ones I failed to activate Libra and 'check' before engaging, like that fucking t-rex right outside of town (who doesn't aggro until you attack it btw.)

like the walls owned the shit out of me...

The demon wall?

SPOILERS

Run.

No, really, run. :D

You can kill it but it's really, really hard to do that.

[Lbelle]

is anyone dying ALOT? I mean like, ALOT? My characters seem to be of level and have decent gear...but I get killed so easily.

Where are you? :D

The only monsters that would repeatedly kill me are the ones I failed to activate Libra and 'check' before engaging, like that fucking t-rex right outside of town (who doesn't aggro until you attack it btw.)

like the walls owned the shit out of me...

The demon wall?

SPOILERS

Run.

No, really, run. :D

You can kill it but it's really, really hard to do that.

Response to spoilers

I finally beat it after dying 5384953789523759827 times. I ran from the first but you can't run from the second. Had to use like all my LPs and get quickenings though >_>

[Eaglestrike]

is anyone dying ALOT? I mean like, ALOT? My characters seem to be of level and have decent gear...but I get killed so easily.

Where are you? :D

The only monsters that would repeatedly kill me are the ones I failed to activate Libra and 'check' before engaging, like that fucking t-rex right outside of town (who doesn't aggro until you attack it btw.)

The T-Rex doesn't aggro cause he eats the wolves around him and gets his fill of blood/food

[theo]

Also, please include any other info about the similiarities between 12 and our cherished 11.

So, last night I found this NM and got some awesome loot, equipped it to my main character.

Five seconds later the NPC controlled character in my party sent me a /tell bitching about how she deserved it and she had more "credits" then me or some such nonsense.

Yeah, its like that.

[Helpoemer]

Any weapons that occasionally hit 2-3 times? <_<

all non-ranged weapons have a chance to attack 2-15 times depending on the type of weapon

swords = normal (max is around 8)
2h swords = normal (max is around 8)
spears = normal (max is around 6)
staffs/rods = rare
Great Katana = pretty common to combo (max around 10)
Katana = very common to combo (max around 15)
dagger = pretty common but not as common as GK (max around 12)
axes = normal


EDIT: reply to tekki's post there's 80 NMs total, not counting bosses/mob hunts

In your opinion is it generally best to stick with each characters 'proficient' weapon? Or is a certain weapon type that much stronger than another that you'd want to use something else? I just picked up Ashe so should I keep her with Gkat?

personally i use this setup:

3 most played characters: Deathbringer (1h sword) and best shield available until you get to Balfonheim (that's when you can do most of the item farming for bazaar goods)
then once you go item farming for the better weapons
Vaan: 2h swords, only use Ultima Weapon, Excal, Tournesol
Basch: Spear, and i mean the strongest one, Zodiac Spear or w/e it's called in US version, but another 2h sword is fine from the ones mentioned above
Ashe: Masamune(great katana) once you get it (free from a certain mob hunt). one thing about great katanas also is that they depend more on magick power rather than strength
Penelo: i use rod of faith personally at endgame, but any staff is fine with her
Balthier: guns are slow, but Fomalhaut owns, other than that he's pretty pants with other weapons, just give him a deathbringer or something
Fran: i stick with bows for her, her crit rate is pretty often with bows + she's a good backup healer

edit: daggers are crap endgame, so are katanas cos they all have darkness hit (and most bosses absorb that element once you try clearing the big stuff, and most enemies cut darkness damage in half) only good thing about em is the massive hit chance. don't ever touch sliderules or axes, sliderules are like guns but they have much much lower atk power and a few of the better ones give the mob stuff like protect on hit. axes have high damage rating but don't be fooled by this, they're damage range is HUGE, sometimes you can do good to average damage, the next few hits you're doing low low damage. i've personally never touched those bomb weapon things, but i think they aren't that good ;x
bowguns aren't that bad, it's just regular bows are better cos you can get better ammo for them

2nd EDIT:
Tip: Ultima Weapon trade goods needed:
2 Adamantite (Rare drop/steal from turtles in Cerobi Steppe)
2 Death Powder (Rare drop from Bogey's in Zertinian Caverns, there's only 2 in one section of the whole zone. Enter from Ozmone Plains)
1 Gnome? (they're called halcyon's in US version, Uncommon Steal from the big Earth glowing Orbs in Dalmasca Westersand)

it's not the strongest 2h sword in the game but it's quite easy to farm the items for these (i used this sword to fight Yazmat though ;o )

[Neosutra]

If your giving 2 handed swords to most of your guys, who do you recomend for shield?